Meet the Winners of GIF IT UP 2016

First and foremost, we want to send a huge thank you to all of the gif-makers and gif-lovers who participated in this year’s GIF IT UP competition and a special shout-out to the other participating GIF IT UP digital libraries: Europeana, Trove, and DigitalNZ. As you browse the entries, you will see an amazing array of cultural heritage materials re-mixed and re-made into fun, creative and inspired animated gifs.

For this year’s competition, the grand prize and runners up were determined by judges Adam Green of The Public Domain Reviewand Sarah Schaaf of Imgur. The People’s Choice Award was determined by most notes on Tumblr as of November 14, 2016. Europeana and Trove have also awarded prizes for best reuse of materials from their collections.

Without further ado, meet the winners of GIF IT UP 2016:

Grand Prize Winner

This entry was created by Kristen Carter and Jeff Gill from Los Angeles, California using source material from the National Library of France via The European Library via Europeana.

From the Trove Judges: There’s nothing more Australian than Parliament House, with its massive white and steel building buried beneath green lawns and set against the backdrop of Red Hill as the flag flies high . The work that has gone into animating this GIF is quite intricate up close and we really liked that. There’s great visual appeal with catchy colours like the bright pink of her dress, the iconic image of a giant, and the “attack of the election woman” feel captures the mood of the moment.

From the Trove Judges: It was the juxtaposition of the formal dancers against the rugged Australian landscape that screamed ‘Wow factor’! Though the background image is from the Central Highlands in Tasmania, the Canberra-dwelling judges could have sworn they were looking at the very familiar Brindabellas. The re-creation of the ballroom dress out of butterfly wings, the movement of both dancers’ legs and the amount of creativity when compared to the originals made this one a stand out for us.

This entry was created by Seinerzeitung from Vienna, Austria using source material from Flickr user Trainiac via Trove.

From the Trove Judges: There is clearly so much work in the movement of each of these planes over a number of frames that this entry begged to be chosen. The scene is utterly emblematic of a WW2 dogfight, we were shocked to find out it was actually in Tasmania.

This entry was created by Hannah Shelley from Sydney, Australia using source material from Museum Victoria via Trove.

From the Trove Judges: This scene is strikingly familiar to the childhood of millions of Australians: a hot summer’s day on the backyard grass, squeals of laughter ringing out as you’re running and jumping while the sprinkler sprays cold water everywhere. The more we looked at this image the more impressed we became by the technical work to make it so smooth and the background so consistent.

Trove Student Winner

A Trove-sponsored prize for best reuse of materials found in Trove by an Australian secondary school student.

This entry is by Bella Luciani from Australia using source material from Flickr user PJ R via Trove.

From the Trove Judges: The idea of a cat capturing its own fish dinner then cooking it with its laser eyes cracked us up.

Trove Librarian Grand Prize

This category was created to recognize the fantastic gif entries submitted by librarians.

These entries were created by Queensland University of Technology Library from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia using source material from the Queensland University of Technology Digital Collections via Trove.

From the Trove Judges: These 3 GIFs together tell a story like no other entry ever has. It was utterly unexpected and delightful. The individual animation and creativity that has gone into each of the GIFs is astounding. Even the dog runs into the lighthouse right before it becomes a rocket ship and takes off. The middle image where the lighthouse pops open like a bin lid made us laugh out loud. This series was the most creative GIFs Australia has seen – well done Queensland University of Technology Digital Collections!

Trove Librarian Runners Up

This entry was created comes from Ipswich Libraries from Ipswich, Queensland, Australia using source material from Picture Ipswich via Trove.